The mobile telephone industry has been associated with tremendous growth over the last several years. For instance, in the recent past, mobile telephones were only available to those of highest economic status due to service costs and costs associated with mobile phones. Moreover, network coverage was not extensive enough to enable robust service. In particular, only areas associated with dense population were provided with extensive wireless network coverage. Still further, the mobile phones that could utilize the networks to communicate were quite bulky, causing portation of the phone over any significant distance to be difficult at best. In more detail, antennas associated with these phones could be over a foot in length, thus making it difficult to utilize the phones in automobiles or other similar areas.
In contrast, today's portable phones (and other portable devices) can be utilized as full-service computing machines. For example, many of the most recent and advanced mobile phones can be associated with word processing software, accounting software, and various other types of software. Furthermore, network coverage has expanded to cover millions, if not billions, of users. Additionally, mobile phones have decreased in both size and cost. Specifically, modern mobile phones are often small enough to slip into an individual's pocket without discomforting the individual. Furthermore, many mobile network service providers offer phones at extremely low cost to customers who contract for service with such providers.
As portable phones are continuously associated with increased affordability, more and more individuals across various demographics are becoming users of portable phones. For instance, due to a desire to quickly and conveniently locate their children, many parents are providing such children with portable telephones. Similarly, an increasing number of individuals of advancing age are purchasing and using cellular telephones. As a consequence, an increasing number of people who use hearing aids to increase their quality of life are using cellular telephones or are desiring to use cellular telephones.
Conventionally, however, use of portable telephones by those who utilize hearing aids has been difficult due to detrimental effects of radio frequency (RF) interference on hearing aids, wherein the RF interference is associated with mobile telephones. In more detail, mobile telephones emit RF signals in order to facilitate communications in its serving network. The radiated RF signals have the potential to be demodulated by various non-linear devices (such as hearing aids) that are near the antenna of the mobile telephone. Hearing aid users may notice that some mobile telephones cause audible interference that can compromise intelligibility of speech received through the mobile telephone. The severity of the interference is influenced by a number of factors, such as the antenna design of the mobile telephone, transmitter output power, arlink type and device form factor. For instance, in a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) device, demodulated RF signal bursts can be audible as a low-frequency “buzz”, which, in some instances, can completely render speech incomprehensible.
One manner for reducing affects of RF interference with respect to hearing aids is to alter radiation characteristics of a mobile telephone, such that as little power as possible is provided to an earpiece of the phone. This can be accomplished through modifying the antenna, for example. Changes of this type, however, can cause a reduction of network coverage with respect to the mobile telephone, resulting in an increasing number of dropped calls. Additionally, changes made to an antenna can result in undesirable changes to a shape, size, and weight of a mobile telephone.